`Will welcome IAS officer Durga Nagpal if she shifts to Punjab`

Lucknow: Suspended IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal is planning to leave Uttar Pradesh along with her husband as soon as the noise over her suspension calms down.

Durga Shakti Nagpal`s husband Abhishek Singh is also an IAS officer.

A daily has quoted a friend of the couple as saying: “Both are very upset and feel they won’t be allowed to work normally in UP now. Once the current issues are resolved, the two will probably apply for a change of cadre."

The 28-year-old former sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) in Noida was suspended on July 27 over the alleged razing of a wall of an under-construction mosque in Gautam Budh Nagar.

Punjab`s Deputy Chief Minister and Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal has, meanwhile, said they would welcome Nagpal if she intended to rejoin the Punjab cadre.

The 2009 batch officer of the Indian Administrative Service shifted to UP from the Punjab cadre after getting married to Abhishek.
It is widely believed that Nagpal was suspended after a string of complaints against her by the sand mining mafia whom she had taken on. As she seized illegal dumpers, ordered arrests, insiders say, the mining mafia, with many being strong party supporters, the Samajwadi Party government was only waiting for an "excuse to do away with the inconvenient official".

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has justified the suspension of IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal, saying his government had acted in accordance with the service rules that govern the Indian Administrative Service cadre.

The UPA-Samajwadi Party row has also deepened over the issue, with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh saying that there were rules governing government officers.